Politics and business (see e.g. APF) have their own agenda about Myanmar-Burma. Social Media can proof and use its juvenile, engaging and powerful approach and networking capacity to branch out.

Among the mainstream media (MSM) I think the BBC does a great job, also Aljazeera English (Video on Youtube) - but more networking between blogger, citizen journalists and MSN is needed to succeed.

If you are interested, just let me just name a few (social media) resources for up-to-date information on what is going on- mostly translated from local blogs -(you find many more list on the Web, e.g. at startblogger.de )

Freitag, September 28, 2007

Blogs, wikis and social networking sites are perfect channels for lead generation -- as long as you're seen as a friend, not as an intruder, says Chris Boylan from Information Builders and shares via MarketingSherpa a case study:

How Information Builder used a B-to-B social network as a distribution channel for a series of white papers and have exceeded their goal for leads by 42.4% and have seen a 750% ROI ...

In the first estimate, it's assumed that online revenue will continue to increase at a strong clip about 25% because either the Yahoo deal doesn't significantly "move the needle" or helps but not enough to stanch print losses. Total newspaper revenue and EBITDA won't turn positive until 2012.

In the second scenario, online revenue advances about 40% starting in the second half of 2008 before settling back down to a growth rate of 25% in 2012. The surge is anticipated as newspapers add more Yahoo features, like the capability to sell remnant inventory for much greater CPMs. Total newspaper revenue and EBITDA will rise starting in 2010.

In the third scenario, online revenue growth is much more robust, increasing 40% in 2008, 50% in 2009, and 50% in 2010 before falling back down to a growth rate of 25% by 2011. Total revenue and EBITA growth will hit positive territory by 2009.

Paweł Nowacki's, Chief-editor wiadomosci24.pl (means: news24) answers to Shel Israel's Question about the situation and outlook of Social Media and Citizen Journalism gives a short overview and some actual figures of what is going on in Poland and why it might be going so well ... the Interview is online at Shel's Global Neighbourhoods

The number and places where sellers and presumptive buyers / users can meet have greatly increased. More and more, the recipient is under control where, when and what he want to 'see'.And most the time the Seller knows more about his potential 'buyer', than the traditional publishers and can choose among many different 'distribution channel'.

It is about the rejuvenation of ad business, where advertising is relevant (and/or entertaining) for the recipient and send sender and both have the chance to "talk" about something "important" (at a given time).

Barry's takeaways from this discussion:- The content model on the web is shifting from the comprehensive portal to the personalized page where the user controls the selection and arrangement of content.

- Widgets can be an effective way to increase brand awareness, drive advertising sponsorship and for eCommerce/affiliate marketing.

- It's already getting crowded out there and it's hard to get notice for your "widgets in the wild". Making your widget playful is key for viral adoption.

(1) the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your website and the competition,(2) to drive a continual improvement of the online experience that your customers, and potential customers have,(3) which translates into your desired outcomes.

‘Second draft’ wikis: a ‘second stage’ piece of journalism, during which readers can edit an article produced in-house (Wired article, Esquire, LA Times wikitorial)

Crowdsourcing wiki: a means of covering material which could not have been produced in-house (probably for logistical reasons), but which becomes possible through wiki technology (San Diego Tribune’s AmpliPedia; Wired How To Wiki)

Supplementary wiki: a supplement to a piece of original journalism, an ‘add-on’: “A tab to a story that says: Create a wiki for related stories” (Francisco, 2006) (CNET’s India Tech Wiki; parts of the Wired How To Wiki)

Open wiki: an open space, whose subject matter is decided by the user, and where material may be produced that would not otherwise have been commissioned (Wikinews)

‘Second draft’ wikis: a ‘second stage’ piece of journalism, during which readers can edit an article produced in-house (Wired article, Esquire, LA Times wikitorial)

Crowdsourcing wiki: a means of covering material which could not have been produced in-house (probably for logistical reasons), but which becomes possible through wiki technology (San Diego Tribune’s AmpliPedia; Wired How To Wiki)

Supplementary wiki: a supplement to a piece of original journalism, an ‘add-on’: “A tab to a story that says: Create a wiki for related stories” (Francisco, 2006) (CNET’s India Tech Wiki; parts of the Wired How To Wiki)

Open wiki: an open space, whose subject matter is decided by the user, and where material may be produced that would not otherwise have been commissioned (Wikinews)

" ... Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism. We encourage everyone to read our news and opinion – as well as share it, link to it and comment on it [...] " more

So what will be next? - besides, that the WSJ will soon dump it's subscription model? Who will offer a convincing Pay-for-Service Model, so the rich 'content' such news organizations have, can be used comfortable to the fullest, wanted, needed extent and add value to the brand?

Montag, September 17, 2007

- How social networking is revolutionizing customer relationships- Why social media is becoming more important than traditional media- Case studies about different ways companies are turning social networking to their advantage- Do and Don'ts

"LiveJournal has a real impact on Russian social and political life. LiveJournal in Russia became the place where Russian citizen society is forming. I think the influence of blogs and especially blogs in LiveJournal on Russian life will increase in the next years ..."

From Martin's answers:"Czechs take it like other things on Internet, more as fun than serious. There are some localized Czech social media sites. The best-known Czech language are:

- lide.cz ( "the people") One of the first Czech social networks, founded in 1998. It provides personalized home pages with photos, messages, lists of friends etc., as well as blogs, chat rooms,the user forum etc. Lide.cz has more than one million registered user profiles (10% of the population).

- spoluzaci.cz ("the classmates") It's a place where people can find their classmates, talk with them, arrange alumni meetings, or share photos or documents.

- libimseti.cz ( "do you like me?") has 200,000 daily visits, provides similar services to Lide.cz.

Clones, often as parts of big portals or web news servers. There is a tendency to try to offer everything on one big site. We have three big portals, each with its own e-mail, blog system, web journal, search engine, catalog, map server, multi-language dictionary, social network, ad network. Then there are three big newspaper sites, which tend to offer it all as well. Collaboration is not usual on the Czech Internet." ...

News media organizations must become portfolio entrepreneurs that make experimentation and "iteration" a way of life and that "put risk and speed at the center of the corporate altar," concludes the new report

Running While the Earth Shakes:Creating an Innovation Strategy to Win in the Digital Age

from the Media Management Center. The report "identifies what news organizations can do to become more aggressive, effective and nimble innovators."

Some of my colleges tell their clients, that Print in India is just in its beginning and will have a great future. If you look at the new AdEx figure about print advertising IT for the first half of 2007, you might have some doubt, whether the development for will be so long, so steep, so favorably for print ...

Get you books by asking your PoD (should also work via on demand delivery services for Magazine, Films, Podcast) to include certain ads from companies you choose and you want to read, hear, see ...

- you choose the book you want to buy
- you see how much you've got to pay and
- you add advertisement until the balance is down to zero
- you press the buy button

This advertisement powered free book (or anything) business model comes from BookGG.com , China. Of course the advertising model is not new - but let you choose, which advertising you want to read in return is a step forward and mixes good with Social Media!

Booklovers can now get books for free online in China through BookGG.com, a Web site launched this year.

When selecting which books they want from BookGG, users can choose from a number of sponsors who wish to advertise in the books, and how many adverts they are willing to have. The location of adverts - front, back, middle or in page corners - can also be specified. If users agree to have enough adverts, the books will be provided to them free of charge.

Customers can also ask for books to be customized, for example, by having their names printed on the cover.

Once customers have made their selection, BookGG re-binds the books it acquired from publishers, inserting whatever adverts have been selected, before dispatching them.

Shen Bo, president and founder of BookGG.com, said the business model could prove revolutionary in how it combines the business resources of the publishing and advertising industries with the strong communication channels offered by the Internet.

Interfax spoke with Shen yesterday about how this pioneering business model is operated and what challenges and opportunities BookGG will face in the future.

Dienstag, September 11, 2007

According to the just released Deloitte's study State of the Media Democracy on Media & Entertainment practice, looking at how American consumers between 13 and 75 years of age are using media and technology today

Findings:

51% of all consumers are watching/reading personal content created by others71 % of Millennials (age 13 - 24) are watching/reading personal content created by others55% of Millennials and 42% of Generation X (25 - 41) read blogs62% of Millennials and 41% of X-ers watch YouTube or other video streaming sites40% of all consumers are creating their own entertainment, such as editing movies, music and photos.56% Millennials are creating their own entertainment25% of Matures (61 - 75) report creating their own entertainment

Source: Deloitte, September 2007

more on other media, cell phones, advertising and searchhttp://www.centerformediaresearch.com/cfmr_brief.cfm?fnl=070911

Montag, September 10, 2007

This are findings of the University of Texas/Chitika Study for US (2006):

But why does someone advertise on Blogs"Ad revenue in a blog is more sensitive to the rank of the blog than what one would expect in a typical Zipf Law 80/20 curve situation. One reason for this may be the social value of advertising in a blog. If online advertising is like advertising in a mall, advertising in the blogosphere is like advertising in a country club ..."

Samstag, September 08, 2007

"(Ramsey) Tesdell, 23, along with three other early 20somethings, launched the site 7iber in May as a place for “people-powered journalism,” hoping that average folks would tell the stories overlooked by mainstream media in Jordan ..." more

Mittwoch, September 05, 2007

Not often you find me posting about a new blog launch - this is an exception. After talking, writing, preaching for years about how to shape the future of newspapers WAN has finally started a blog to do instant publishing and promote their services.

The SFNblog has comments, trackbacks, Feeds (RSS, ATOM), it has categories, readers can subscribe for a newsletter (no info on content, frequency, customizing etc.) - no bookmarking and share service yet.

Lets see how active it gets and whether it is steering up communication ...

Dienstag, September 04, 2007

Shel Israel got a tough job from SAP. VP Mike Prosceno asked him to do a conventional research into an unconventional area, which might help to make successful company even more successful and give them a leading edge in Social Media.

So Shel went ahead and has done up to now more than 40 interviews with people from 15 countries ... and it is not over jet. See more on his Blog where he publishes the interview and gives some update on progress.

I had the chance to helped him out with some contacts in CEE countries and in return he gave me some more work to do ... he asked (too) many question, about my experience with Social Media, about the status in Germany and fast growing but quite diverse CEE countries and what SAP should do ... yesterday (Labor Day in US) he published my answers on his Blog: SAP Global Survey: Hugo E. Martin

I did not talk much about the blogging scene in Germany as he had already interviewed Nicole Simon, a much more knowledgable person from Germany (blognation)

But I indicated, that from my understanding, SAP has a long way to go before they are anywhere near to be the Global Social Media Front Runner (just look at their 'prospect ware' like website).

"My SAP-experiences-- as a user, a system house, a publisher and as a consultant are maybe a bit out-dated. Let me just name a few areas that I think they should examine .

1. Internally, SAP staff and management are using social media (like Blogs & Wikis) in a big way for their business, but missing out to provide this features and tools as natural basic components of their software. I would suggest SAP take more care of their clients' basic needs.

2. If you get your WordPress / Socialtext / 37Signals, etc. application offers, when you start thinking about SAP (and you find out that your staff uses them already in their daily life) than SAP has an easy ‘educational job’ creating value by giving a helping hand and first-hand experience. When I talk with corporate clients, SAP does not come up as a social media service provider or even the provider of choice. Just take a look at the SAP Global Website . It is still ‘prospect ware’ it its best – o.k. , they have a ‘contact form’ you can fill out.

3. If I were still a publisher, I would like SAP to deliver my services directly to SAP’s client desks. And I’m sure, SAP clients would like it as well, because their staff would have the information they need for business delivered to their needs and wants. The companies advertising their products and services to B2B would like it. They can finally reach anyone involved in the buying process at a reasonable cost and the B2B publisher should like, because the have a superb and cost-effective way to service their client (readers & advertisers)."

You want to know how your reader look at your news in print and online and how they access news? The best way to find out is to watch them!

Poynter watched more than 600 people - aged 18 to 60 - looking through tabloids, broadsheets and newspaper Websites and can provide you a scientific picture how people look and navigate through your news. What are your chances to grab and maintain readers attention? The Eyetracking Study answers questions like

- do readers follow my teasers?- how deeply do they reading into my copy?- how will photos, headlines, graphics and info boxes influence my readers?- how is it different in print and online?

Two Key findings:Where do people read a larger percentage?77 percent online, 62 percent in broadsheet, 57 percent in tabloids

What is most attractive, looked first, gets more attention?Large headlines and photos in print, navigation bars and teaser online

Montag, September 03, 2007

According to my friend Serhiy Danylenko from Highway.UA, the BlogCamp CIS & Baltics 2007 will be probable the first BarCamp in the post-SU territory. Evgeny Morozov from Belarus (Director of New Media at TOL.org) initiated the project and is organizing the event with people from Baltics, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.They expect about 300 bloggers and Social Media people to gather on October 12-14 in Kyiv (Kiev, Ukraine) to discuss Social Media and Web 2.0 development in the region - in four lines of sessions, three in Russian and one in English.

Certainly, participating on this event for interested 'outsider', will be very educational, a good chance to get to know the driving forces behind Blogging, Social Media & Citizen Journalism and Web 2.0 developement in CIS countries & Baltics and to gain and share lots of inside about this fast moving region.

I do not know whether there is enough interest on discussing subject like

- how Social Media and Traditional Media can benefit from each other - how Social Media can make up for missing or suppressed diversity of mass media - how Social Media can benefit Special Interest and/or B2B Media

with foreign and non-Russian speaking folks? If so, I will try to participate.

According to my friend Serhiy Danylenko from Highway.UA, the BlogCamp CIS & Baltics 2007 will be probable the first BarCamp in the post-SU territory. Evgeny Morozov (Director of New Media at TOL.org) initiated the project and is organizing the event with people from Baltics, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.'

They expect about 300 bloggers and Social Media people to gather on October 12-14 in Kyiv (Kiev, Ukraine) to discuss Social Media and Web 2.0 development in the region - in four lines of sessions, three in Russian and one in English.

Certainly, participating on this event for interested 'outsider', will be very educational, a good chance to get to know the driving forces behind Blogging, Social Media & Citizen Journalism and Web 2.0 developement in CIS countries & Baltics and to gain and share lots of inside about this fast moving region.

I do not know whether there is enough interest on discussing subject like

- how Social Media and Traditional Media can benefit from each other - how Social Media can make up for missing or suppressed diversity of mass media - how Social Media can benefit Special Interest and/or B2B Media

with foreign and non-Russian speaking folks? If so, I will try to participate.

G.J. [IN]This not only the best newsletter in its field (publishing & media), but also one of the best newsletters I read on any subject- ranked on clarity, usefullness and timeliness ... I sincerely hope that you do not close down such a useful business tool.